US blogwatch: Too close to call in the swing states

The big story in the wake of this week’s final presidential debate is the polls. With less than two weeks to go, has Barack Obama broken Mitt Romney’s surge?

The best aggregation of polling averages (realclearpolitics.com) shows the two candidates desperately close —

little more than two points apart in any swing state. Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com) thinks Romney’s poll momentum has stopped. His prediction last night? A slightly increased 73 per cent chance of an Obama win.

*Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s comments have highlighted the most divisive issue in US politics: abortion. Mourdock said that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen”.

The comment prompted Obama to make references to women’s choice in stump speeches, but redstate.com editor Eric Erickson said: “I’m sending Richard Mourdock some money and you should, too.”

*Donald Trump’s hint that he would release Barack and Michelle Obama’s “divorce papers” proved too silly even for him and he fell back on “birther” claims, offering $5 million to charity if Obama published his college and passport records. Presenter Barbara Walters, and a friend of Trump, yesterday told him on TV: “Donald, you’re making a fool of yourself.”

*Mitt Romney gets a rock ’n’ roll endorsement as he appears with Meatloaf at a football stadium in Defiance, Ohio. The Republican and the Bat Out Of Hell Star sang God Bless America.